Buy me! Marlon Brando’s 1969 Harley Davidson
Jun
23
2015
Shopping for a chopper with a pedigree? Buy one from the guy who starred in “The Wild One” (1953). On Saturday, June 27, 2015, collectors and the transportation-challenged will have a chance to bid on Marlon Brando’s personally owned Harley Davidson FLH Electra-Glide at Julien’s Auctions Beverly Hills (Lot #791, Estimate: $200,000-$400,000). Hollywood Legends Auction ...
The French named it … let’s see how they do it … film noir
Jun
19
2015
The French coined the term “film noir” (both for dark plot lines and shadow-soaked visuals). In a land that reveres cinema like no other, France has hidden in its oeuvre crime films and dark melodramas that capture the essence of noir. A series spooling at the Aero Theatre this weekend, “The French Had a Name ...
Bawdy, bodacious broads on parade
Author/radio host Sandra Tsing Loh presents her solo comedy act, The B**** is Back: An All-Too Intimate Conversation, inspired by her best-selling memoir The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones. For mature audiences. From 1906 through the beginning of television, Sophie Tucker and her bawdy, brash, and risqué songs paved the way ...
How “Girl Shy” was Harold Lloyd? Find out at the Villa Aurora.
Jun
10
2015
What a nice notion … that Harold Lloyd was “Girl Shy” (1924). At an upcoming screening, we’ll learn more from Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne. (Her very existence a clear indication that Lloyd wasn’t totally girl shy!) She’ll appear at a wonderful silent-movie night with live organ accompaniment by Michael Mortilla pumping the pipe organ at the ...
Roman Polanski, film curator
Cineaste Roman Polanski has conceived a new documentary for the Prada Foundation, whose spawling new arts facility in Milan includes a Cinema building — so fitting for Italy the bastion of great 20th century filmmaking. The doc, directed by Laurent Bouzerau, considers Polanski’s auteur-inspirations by analyzing some of the films that have most influenced him. ...
Ravishing dance-film journey to Havana
“Dancing for My Havana,” an Italian/Cuban co-production written and directed by Claudio Del Punta, has garnered the Special Jury Prize of the Dance Camera West festival 2015. The film, a colorful wonderland set in Havana’s romantic urban ruins, tells a love story interpersed with sensational dance numbers that give a rare glimpse into unadulterated Cuban ...
Herb Alpert’s twenty-one years of generous giving to artists
Herb Alpert, center, with the 2015 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts winners, from left, Maria Hassabi, Taylor Mac, Herb Alpert, Sharon Lockhart and Julia Wolfe. Absent because detained in Cuba: Tania Brugeura. On May 1, The Herb Alpert Foundation and California Institute of the Arts awarded the 21st annual Herb Alpert Award in the ...
Delon and Gabin crime story a highlight of COLCOA Classics
Brenda Blethyn’s performance as a devoted parole officer was the best thing about Two Men in Town, but it wasn’t enough to bring the drama fully to life. An adaptation of a 1973 French film that transplanted the action from Montpellier to the U.S.-Mexican border, the recent release also starred Forest Whitaker and Harvey Keitel. ...
Cyd Charisse at the ballet barre, in full flush of Technicolor
In opening moments of director Henry Koster’s The Unfinished Dance (1947), the audience gets the distinct pleasure of peering in as ballerina Mlle Bouchet (Cyd Charisse) does her daily warm-up. The gorgeous burnt-yellow tutu Cyd wears is the vision of costume designer Helen Rose. The color-saturated image — the yellow costume, Cyd’s red-red lipstick against ...
New Patrice Leconte comedy splendid Sunday attraction @ COLCOA
Apr
24
2015
A very appealing prospect on Sunday afternoon at COL*COA film festival, now on at the DGA Building on Sunset Boulevard, is a new film by French comedy writer/director Patrice Leconte. Leconte who burst forth in 1989 with “Monsieur Hire” and “The Hairdresser’s Husband,” has led a long career making films of wide-ranging themes, many with ...